February 29, 2012

Chainmaille Watch Band in Oops Weave

I've long had an obsession with watch bands, handmade watch band, that is, of course!

Back in my bead weaving days, I made a free form (mostly peyote-based) watch band, in many shades and shapes of blue beads. That tickled me for a very long time! Got it? A long "time"?!! :-)

Fast forward. Watch bands have also been a popular application (hey, an app!) for chainmaille. Those tiny rings are perfect attachment to any watch face with mini tension bars for changing watch bands.

Just about any basic chainmaille weaves can be used for watch bands, with the key being a weave that is dense but low profile, flexible but sturdy. As I searched and researched, the winner in my book is still my all time favorite, Oops! AKA, European 4 in 1 Unbalanced.

Oops weave is very fluid, fabric-like, yet very strong to stand up to daily wear and tear.

Speaking of daily wear, for the band closure, I selected a 5-point tube slider for easy on and off. The slider also has a small magnet built inside the ends of the tube to help "guide and attract" the opposite end in place.

Oh, and I love this nice and BIG watch face, with BIG numbers. Yes, it measures over 1 1/2" across. With all this surface area, it's only 1/4" in thickness. Not ultra thin, but thin and light weight enough to fit comfortably over the wrist.

The total length for the watch and band is right at 7", with the Oops band at 1" wide, and the tube slider closed at 1 1/8" wide. The Oops band can be slightly lengthened at 3/16" increment to fit a bigger wrist.

The metal used for the chainmaille band is bright aluminum, a light weight, no maintenance metal. The material of the tube slider is plated in platinum color. The watch face has a stainless steel case, acrylic window, with quartz movement.

For complete view of the watch/band, please visit my Picasa album here.